How to customize Wordpress Easily

1. You installed Wordpress. What next? Find a template! Head over to wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and take a look. You have lots of templates there that can be customized later without you having and design/coding experience.So choose a template for your blog. Then upload it. That's the first step. Now, let's go further with step 2.
2. Let's put some Wordpress plugins (can be found at wordpress.org/extend/plugins/). But which ones are the best for your site?First, install some SEO (search engine optimization) plugins that can help you get more visitors from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live.) You have some lists of SEO plugins in the resources section below on this page.Tip: Don't over-obsess with plugins. I know they can be great enhancers of your blog but focus 80% of your time on what truly matters...the content. Content is what gets readers.

3. After playing around with themes and plugins you will want to customize them to suit your needs. Fortunately that's easy to do.If you know CSS customizing your Wordpress themes will be a breeze. So I recommend you learn some basic CSS (you have a great tutorial on w3schools.com.)Also if you know how to code in PHP that would be great in order to customize plugins.But wait, wait...I lied to you a little. These days most of the plugins and themes can be customized easily in Wordpress alone. But for even enhanced functionality knowing CSS and PHP is great but not mandatory.
4. Here's a great tip if you need help in customizing a theme or plugin on your blog: Ask the theme owner! I was surprised when I found that most owners respond very fast when I ask for help regarding their creations.But please...if the answer is available using simple Google search then the chances for you getting a response are smaller. So first do a search on your problem before asking for an advice.
5. Don't add some customizations that aren't needed or won't benefit your visitors nor you (like adding a custom admin login page, what's the point in that?.) Before adding a new functionality to your blog ask yourself: Is this going to help my visitors or is only going to make me look cooler? The pros are doing the first thing while the noobs are more doing the second so...you decide.